Janken
by peroxidepest17
Summary: ChadxIchigoxIshida OT3- No matter what anyone else says, it CAN be a three-way game.
1. Rock

**Title: **Janken 1- Rock  
**Author:** Celeste  
**Rating:** PG-13 (Some shounen-ai themes. Like you expected anything else)  
**Feedback:** (yes!)  
**Pairing: **None… at least, not really. YET. Yet, dammit. Though I guess there's sort of OT3 vibey-vibage or something. --;;**  
Spoilers:** Not really…I think?  
**Summary:** Chad- Slow and steady.  
**Word Count:** 1,475  
**A/N:** Something bit me and made me want to do something that was more than a one shot for Bleach. I'm still not sure what it was, but this is the first part I managed to pump out from a computer that's not mine (ie I was working outside of my comfort zone), but regardless, hopefully it's not complete suckage. Plus I don't want my brain to completely turn to mush during Spring Break, and this is the result of those endeavors. Plus, I think Chad needs more fandom love. ;; Even if he is ridiculously hard to write. Aheh.  
**Dedication:** Mel, even if she doesn't know who the hell these characters are, cuz she let me hijack her computer to write. Even though she had homework (I'm a bad friend).  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine… if it were, this show would probably be unfit for young children (by young I mean… under 17? XD). Yes, I am a pervert.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

Slow and steady wins the race.

It might have been cliché, or something like that, but it was one of those old saying that Sado Yasutora had always believed in.

Not because of any deliberate attempts on his part to drift through his days at a permanent, leisurely lope, but just because that seemed to be the way fate had deemed life would treat him.

And the fact that his slow, steady friendship with Kurosaki Ichigo enjoyed a certain amount of longevity despite the great differences in their personality was testament to the applicability of his philosophy.

Ichigo was quick tempered and loud-mouthed, often thoughtless, rude, and inexplicably dense despite his scholastic intelligence.

And Chad was, as Ishida Uryuu saw fit to point out on one lunchtime occasion, everything Ichigo was not.

The orange-haired boy bristled predictably, glaring at the archer and shouting insults that he didn't really mean but said only because they were the first responses that happened to pop into his head at the spur of the moment.

Ishida adjusted his glasses coolly and made a snide remark in that dead-pan voice of his, that Ichigo had just proved him correct and wasn't that nice of him?

Chad took another bite of his curry pan. From his position between them, he eyed them one after the other through the curtain of his bangs.

"Oi, Chad! Tell this prissy-boy that he's the last one to be talking about bad personality traits!" Ichigo demanded, deliberately avoiding any more direct conversation with Ishida.

Chad chewed for a moment, swallowed. Took a sip of his milk, swishing it around in his mouth before swallowing that as well.

He turned to Ishida. "Ishida…Ichigo says… you're mean."

"Well tell Kurosaki-kun that I didn't say I _didn't_ have certain traits that need improving, but rather that I was simply pointing out his more obvious ones seeing as to how he seems to be the only one in the universe who hasn't already noted them by now."

Chad finished off the last of his bread in thoughtful silence. Pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the oil from his fingertips. Took another gulp of milk.

"Ichigo…Ishida says… you're meaner."

The Quincy huffed and tossed his long bangs back from his face so he could finish his onigiri in the most dignified manner possible. "Your dictation leaves something to be desired, Sado."

Chad blinked at him. "Did you want me to let Ichigo know that too?"

Ichigo snorted from his other side. "I already _know._"

"Okay." He opened his cream pan.

Both shinigami and Quincy looked slightly put out, but couldn't really say anything since technically, Chad hadn't _done_ anything.

Chad sipped his milk and finished his dessert, eyes occasionally drifting to the other two boys seated on either side of his large frame.

There was something about the two of them that made him want to smile, and at the same time close his eyes and completely tune them out.

Maybe it was the predictable rise in noise level that occurred whenever one of the two was within ten feet of the other that brought on the latter reaction. He wasn't quite sure about that. But he was fairly certain that his urge to smile when he watched them was due to the fact that he could see the flush of life brightening Kurosaki's features or the exhilaration blooming in a small percentage of Ishida's smile whenever they bickered like that.

In either case, it was a little nice to watch over them both when they were together like that, to experience with them, life in a different, faster light than the one he was used to.

He supposed this was how the mountains felt, when they watched the winds playing their erratic games all around them. Or was it rocks? He could never quite remember the little details of the things they discussed in their Japanese literature classes, but today's lesson had had something to that effect in it (he was pretty sure anyway), or perhaps something even more poetic than that. Well, regardless, he thought it was applicable in his situation. And Chad didn't think anyone who knew him and Ichigo and Ishida could really call that description wrong even if it hadn't been in the text book exactly as he'd described.

Though it did tell him that maybe he needed to pay more attention in lit class, if only for the fact that there was probably going to be a test sometime soon on the material and if he couldn't even remember it on the same day it was taught, he might be falling into Keigo and Mizuiro's realm, which sort of hurt his pride when he thought about it.

"Oi… Chad, don't space out like that," Kurosaki demanded after a moment, knocking Yasutora firmly on the temple with his knuckles to bring him back into the argument. "I don't want to be stuck in conversation alone with _that_ guy," the shinigami announced, blatantly belligerent towards the unruffled archer.

"Okay," Chad responded, tearing the remnants of his cream bread into little crumbs so it would be easier for the birds to manage later. He scattered the pieces over the rooftop in front of him and dusted his hands off on the front of his pants.

"Maybe he just wanted to avoid having to listen to _you_ any more, Kurosaki," Ishida offered, helpful as ever.

Ichigo made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. "Oh shut up already, would you!"

"I'm not the one shouting."

Chad chuckled a little, and Ichigo, looking plainly disgusted and a little bit betrayed by his best friend's reaction, harrumphed.

Ishida, satisfied with his victory, respectfully held back any other comments, but not before Yasutora caught the slight crinkling in the corners of his eyes, a small concession to his amusement towards their strange, volatile relationship.

Chad smiled back, because there was something about Ishida's small presentations of happiness that the taller boy couldn't help but reciprocate.

On his other side, Ichigo caught the action between the two of them and frowned, looking away uncomfortably, though not completely unhappily. "You two always gang up on me," he complained, only to dispel the fact that something larger than the fact that Ishida was an asshole was happening before his very eyes.

He mumbled something about a best friend's dubious loyalties and stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankle. Folding his arms behind his head, the orange-haired boy stared upwards, looking distanced. "Well, whatever. Keep that kinda stuff down in public at least, would ya?"

Ishida and Chad both blinked.

"What stuff?" Ishida questioned, an inexplicable tinge coloring his ears as he fumbled to adjust his glasses again.

Chad wadded his trash, shrugged, and responded with a simple, "I dunno." When neither of the other two pursued the topic, he simply leaned back against the wall beside his long time friend, shoulder to shoulder in comfortable closeness with Kurosaki.

Ishida eyed them both, frowning behind the glint of his lenses. After a moment, he made a defeated noise and leaned back beside Yasutora's solid mass, not quite touching the other boy.

For the remainder of the lunch break, Chad sat steadily through Ishida's sighs and Ichigo's occasional grunts, the two of them stealing glances at him or each other every so often, looking thoughtfully perturbed about something but confused about what, exactly.

Their confusion made him smile again, made him rest one heavy hand on Ichigo's shoulder and pat Ishida's head with the other.

Stirred by the sudden contact, Ichigo fidgeted uncomfortably, glancing at the larger teen. "Uh…what's up, Chad?"

Ishida flushed slightly and ducked out from under Yasutora's fingers. "Sado-kun?"

"…nothing." He let his hands settle solidly in his lap again and leaned back, closing his eyes.

On either side of him, Kurosaki and Ishida were still very confused.

He could have told them, being the first to come to the correct conclusion at that constant pace of his. And knowing Kurosaki and Ishida's capricious ones, telling them right off the bat might have saved the other two boys a little confusion and most likely, lots of aggravation. It probably would have been easier if he simply told them, definitely quicker. Despite that, Chad surmised that if he simply came out and said it, it would create a whole other set of problems for his erratic companions, proving more detrimental than helpful in the long run. Even if it was quicker, possibly easier.

But Chad still believed in slow and steady. If anything, the fact that he had realized what was happening first proved that his beliefs in the old aphorism weren't entirely outdated.

So, he was sure that given the time, they'd get it eventually.

Until then, Chad sat quietly by and waited for them to catch up.

**END**


	2. Paper

**Title:** Paper  
**Author:** Celeste  
**Rating:** PG-13 (Some shounen-ai themes. Like you expected anything else)  
**Feedback:** (yes!)  
**Pairing:** ChadxIchigoxIshida OT3 undertones  
**Spoilers:** Not really…I think?  
**Summary:** Ishida- He could write a book.  
**Word Count:** 1,475 (wow…exact same as the one before. Freaky.)  
**A/N:** Oh my god…I think I'm writing sappy Bleach-fic! There is something criminally wrong about that, but I just can't seem to make it stop. It just sort of comes out like this. Hopefully it's not a long term thing and the crack fic will return soon, because I really think I'm not cut out with dealing with serious issues. Especially in this whole OT3 area of writing. I want to have fun with these three, I do. I guess my muse just kind of has a different agenda right now. ;; But I think if I get enough flames about how bad this all is I'll give up on writing like this and go back to the fun Bleach crack that is about a billion times easier to write. Flame away!  
**Dedication:** JaB, because her livejournal entries never cease to amuse. And I need that because I'm constantly boring myself with my own writing.  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine… if it were, I wouldn't have such a hard time getting the merchandise. ;; Well, theoretically.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

All his life, Ishida Uryuu had never had anyone his age who he could consider a real friend. For the longest time, he was uncertain as to what true friendship really was.

Just from watching Kurosaki and Sado, he felt like he could write a book.

There was something about their easy, steadfast camaraderie that made him stop and watch, made him pause and admire, and that also stirred a strange sort of longing inside of him. He would call it jealousy, if only for lack of a better term, but he didn't want to believe that observing something as pure as their interaction would incite such a shameful reaction in him in response.

So he wouldn't call it jealousy, making himself bound and determined to call it simple admiration instead. And that made more sense, when he thought about it, because if he really was jealous of their friendship, it would be because he either wanted to be as close to Kurosaki as Sado was or as close to Sado as Kurosaki was, and when he thought about it, it wasn't that he wanted to usurp the place of either.

There was a fondness for both of them that he couldn't quite explain, that might have involved some parts jealousy but which he really wanted to believe was more parts appreciation.

In any case, he felt that their relationship was worthy of note.

And being as studious as he was, Ishida contented himself with taking those notes on their touching interaction for future reference, though he knew perfect emulation was futile. But if he could learn something, snag a small part of their easy companionship and keep it with him always, then it was all worth it.

Day in and day out he sat beside them, writing on the tablet of his mind the story that they graciously allowed him to take part in, finding his own sort of timid joy in Kurosaki's predictably antagonistic attitude and Chad's solid, steady presence.

There was an unspoken ease between the two of them that seemed impenetrable, a comfortable trust which the Quincy longed to discover the secret to, to unlock and record and preserve for generations.

He wanted…

"Ishida… lunch."

The archer looked up at the sound of Sado's voice, seeing the taller boy looking down at him with a subdued sort of concern, gesturing with a large hand to the food that Ishida wasn't eating.

"Yeah…pay attention, stupid. You're already too skinny to forget eating," Kurosaki scoffed around his juice box straw.

Ishida flushed slightly, but managed to shoot back a, "I didn't know you cared so much, Kurosaki. I'm touched," while pushing up his glasses in what he hoped wasn't too embarrassed a manner.

Ichigo snorted and polished off his drink, looking purposefully away from the other boy. "Well, it'd just be freaky if you got any smaller. You'd be able to fold up and hide behind Rukia, or something."

Chad smiled, eyes laughing from behind his unruly bangs. "Yeah."

Ishida turned a betrayed countenance on Sado. "I would have at least counted on your backing against this juvenile attack, Sado-kun," he sniffed, though he wasn't as annoyed as he made out to be.

The taller boy looked repentant for a moment, before shrugging one large shoulder. "You should eat lunch," he offered simply.

Ishida looked away, tucking a long bang behind his ear. "I was planning to."

"…'kay." Chad allowed a rare, teeth-showing smile.

"I'm so alone," Ishida announced with just a hint of dramatic flourish before lifting his chopsticks.

That made Chad frown a little, made Ichigo's eye twitch in an annoyed manner.

"Oh stop being such a drama queen, wouldya? Just eat your goddamn rice before the bell rings, skinny-ass."

Sado reached out and gently bopped the Quincy over the head with his half-empty water bottle before uncapping it and pushing it against the smaller boy's cheek. "You should drink too," he added calmly. "'s hot today."

"Ah…thanks…" Ishida murmured, slightly perplexed as he took the drink and set it down beside his bento.

The other two boys shared a look, both nodding slightly before Ichigo resumed his calm, post-meal posture and stretched out on the rooftop, staring up at the sky. Chad sat beside him as per tradition, and they idled in comfortable silence as the Quincy sat nearby, finishing his food in thoughtful quiet.

Kurosaki closed his eyes and sighed, brow slightly furrowed even as he relaxed.

Chad, half of his face hidden by those unkempt bangs, was presumably doing the same, though in a much more subdued fashion as he sat beside the orange-haired shinigami.

Ishida watched them as he chewed his egg and marveled at how well suited they were to each other in the lazy afternoon sunlight.

He felt that strange, ambiguous not-jealousy-but-admiration beginning to curl in the pit of his stomach again as he watched them, and took a sip of water to quell its rages.

Frowning, he set his chopsticks down, pulling his knees up against his chest and resting his chin atop them, staring at the ground and the half-eaten lunch lying at his feet.

After a moment, "Oi…Ishida…"

The Quincy blinked at Kurosaki's sudden address. "Uh…yes?"

"Quit it would ya?"

"Quit what?"

"Quit being so goddamn annoying," Ichigo clarified helpfully, eyes still shut.

Ishida frowned, forgetting his internal discomfort at the first sign of Ichigo's external bothersome attitude. "Well as long as we're voicing our dissatisfactions with each other's characters, can I ask you to stop being such an idiot?"

The shinigami cracked an eye, scowling. "Would you quit being such an ass and just eat your lunch already? Jeez."

"And drink," Chad added after a moment's silence. "Because it's hot today."

The archer looked away from them. "I was just thinking for a moment," he defended rather lamely.

The shinigami grimaced. "Yeah, and it was annoying as hell."

Ishida fought the urge to throw the water bottle at Ichigo, citing internally that without the cap, it would probably splash all over Sado if he did. Even if his taste in best friends was somewhat questionable, Chad didn't really deserve to pay for Ichigo's bad personality.

Wondering how good his aim would have to be to avoid that, the Quincy eyed Sado speculatively.

Blinked at what he saw.

"Sado-kun…are you _laughing_ at me?"

"No."

"You are!"

"I'm laughing at both of you."

"Oi, what're you laughing at _me_ for? I didn't do anything!"

"You don't have to do anything to be laughable, Kurosaki."

"Oh would you shut up already? Didn't we tell you to eat your lunch, pretty boy?"

"I'm flattered you care enough about my good looks to want me healthy, Ichigo."

"Argh…freakin'… I give up. Starve to death for all I care. Che…asshole."

Before he could really help himself, Ishida found himself joining Sado in his laughter.

Ichigo frowned, but not in an irritated manner so much as a resigned one, and turned on his side. "I'm sleepin'. You both make me more tired than the goddamn hollows."

Without a word, Chad moved ever so slightly so that his shadow fell over Kurosaki, blocking the sunlight.

Ichigo grunted his thanks, and for a while, silence reigned.

Before long, the shinigami was snoring. Ishida wasn't sure about Sado's state of consciousness with his eyes obscured by his hair as they were. Awake or asleep, the larger boy didn't really move or make any noise either way.

The archer sighed and picked up his chopsticks again, deciding that jealousy and admiration were both inadequate terms for what he felt towards the other two boys.

He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he was beginning to cross off what it was _not_ on his mental list, and in doing so, found himself starting to arrive at a conclusion of sorts with equal parts dread and anticipation.

He thought that perhaps, he was just starting to realize, maybe, what was happening to him here.

And he wasn't sure how he felt about it.

There was a sudden, solidly reassuring weight rested atop his head, and he felt his hair being mussed beyond repair.

The gesture still surprised him whenever it occurred, but he found himself growing slightly less jumpy about it as its frequency increased. He didn't shrug immediately out of the contact this time, instead asking only, "S-sado?"

"10 minutes till lunch is over." The hand was calmly withdrawn.

"All right…thank you."

"Sure."

He began to eat again. And to drink, because it was pretty hot out here. Beside him, Kurosaki and Sado dozed in comfortable silence.

Ishida watched them as he finished his lunch, deciding that regardless of where he fell into the grand scheme of things, he was sure that anything he might write about his life with these two was going to fill pages.

He looked forward to it.

**END **


	3. Scissors

**Title:** Janken 3- Scissors  
**Author:** Celeste  
**Rating:** PG-13 (Some shounen-ai themes. Like you expected anything else)  
**Feedback:** (yes!)  
**Pairing:** ChadxIchigoxIshida OT3-ness  
**Spoilers:** Not really…I think?  
**Summary:** Ichigo- not always the sharpest pair in the drawer.  
**Word Count:** 1,855  
**A/N:** Ooohkay, I'm obviously stretching this out longer than I should and it's very, very boring. I apologize for that, because I know it's especially bad when the writer bores themselves as they write. ;; I think I just need to get this out of my system and things will be okay. Hopefully it's not some sort of boring-sap virus or something like that. Pray for me.  
**Dedication:** Ann, because she read my Bleach fic even before she'd read the manga. And now she's reading the manga. Yay!  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine… if it were, I wouldn't have such a hard time getting the merchandise. ;; Well, theoretically.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

Ichigo knew that he wasn't the sharpest of people when it came to certain things, but when they became obvious enough to the point where even he was beginning to notice, he was pretty sure it meant something had to be done. 

He was beginning to notice that there was something going on with Chad and Ishida.

When he speculated aloud to Rukia about it, she'd just given him her special, "are you stupid?" look and shook her head, muttering about how she'd left out on eating lunch with the "dumb human boys" months ago because it was starting to hurt her head.

When he thought about it, she and Inoue really had stopped eating with them for a while now.

When he asked her why that was, she threw something at his head and told him that she was leaving for class early, before the stupid could infect her too.

He shouted after her for being a bitch and rubbed the small lump on his head from where the corner of the manga she'd tossed at him had beaned him.

All he'd wanted was a second opinion. Sheesh.

Well, maybe she'd been the wrong one to ask anyway. Rukia's observations tended to be skewed towards the most obvious conclusion, and Kurosaki was pretty sure there was something more complicated going on here than she could fathom.

Or he could be completely wrong and she knew exactly what was up and had for a long time now. With her it was never really a sure thing, and he sometimes speculated that she was partly to blame for his aversion to the female population as a whole.

Though to be fair, he didn't feel he was sure about _anything_ as of late, Rukia included.

At least he knew who to blame for that.

And it was frustrating to the point that he was beginning to notice a strange, probing tension even when he was around Chad.

If this was what high school angst was primarily made up of, he didn't think he liked it one bit. It was confusing as hell.

He felt especially unsure as to where he stood in the thick of things, knowing that there was _something_ going on with Chad and Ishida but not knowing what to do about it, really.

It was like the both of them knew something he didn't, and had bonded over it.

He was pretty sure he wouldn't have noticed if it had stayed as simple as that, but it hadn't, which made him happy for them or whatever, but it also kind of annoyed him as well.

The secret smiles and the steadily increasing (if seemingly innocent) touches were something he couldn't help but notice, and the weird way they were kind of acting towards him was a hugely obvious clue if he ever saw one.

A clue to _what_ exactly, remained the mystery.

His first suspicions were that they had the hots for each other, or at least big old honking crushes. And he was fairly certain that those first suspicions weren't entirely wrong, but he was starting to suspect that they weren't really entirely right, either.

After he'd gone through all the trouble of coming to terms with it, too.

Really, he'd been ready to concede that the two of them matched well with each other, better than he ever could have, and was ready to wish them well. He'd even gotten over the fact that in being together, he would be the third wheel, and was willing to sever some of his closer ties with them in order to give them the privacy they'd need as love birds.

Call it crazy, but knowing them how he thought he knew them, Ichigo surmised they'd be the lovey-dovey type of couple.

So, knowing how well suited they were to each other, the orange-haired teen didn't want to cramp their style. And he definitely didn't want to end up being the useless kind of guy that threw a tantrum because his best friends were being taken away from him.

Because they weren't. Not really, anyway.

Even if it sort of felt like he was losing something, though he wasn't sure exactly what that was.

Maybe he was disappointed in having to try and be nicer to Ishida out of respect to Chad. Or maybe he was a little sad that he'd have to cut himself away from Chad a little as a concession to Ishida.

He wasn't mad, or even really annoyed about anything. He just figured it would be a little troublesome and that yeah, he was maybe even losing something, but he wasn't really sure what.

Except he wasn't really sure about _that_ either, because for the happy new couple (or at least, couple-to-be if they just hurried the hell up), Ishida and Chad were acting funny.

Ichigo was pretty sure lovebirds of that type were supposed to want to be alone and do cutesy things and speak some sort of secret language or something.

They weren't supposed to hunt down the third wheel every day and drag him to lunch, especially when he was doing his level best to be as out of their way as possible.

Even if that meant either eating alone or eating with Rukia and the rest of the girls while they gossiped.

The point was that he was trying, even if it was really bothersome and Rukia kept throwing things at his head.

But every day, when he was preparing to sneak off, he'd feel the weight of Chad's hand fall onto his shoulder, the other boy giving Ichigo that oblivious smile of his as he steered him out the door towards the stairs.

Ishida was never far behind, and oddly enough, never seemed pissed at all that Chad was dragging Ichigo into the whole deal.

They'd eat lunch, and Ichigo would watch the other two acting kind of strange, and his head would hurt over the whole thing because he wasn't quite sure why _he_ was there.

And he'd thought the most difficult part of all of this would be cutting himself off from _them_. Not that he was complaining or anything, because he generally liked spending time with one or the other or both of them, but it was all very confusing.

And it wasn't like he wasn't trying to give them some alone time. He was. They just didn't seem to want it.

Later that day, promptly as the lunch bell announced the end of the history lesson, he hastily threw his things into his bag, making to follow after Rukia outside. Maybe today…

"Oi, Ichigo…"

The feel of a familiar, solid weight on his shoulder told him he hadn't been fast enough again. Sighing, he let himself be directed out of the room without too much of a struggle, Chad and Ishida both looking amused about something or another as they walked. That kind of annoyed the orange-haired boy, not knowing what the hell was going on, especially since he was pretty damn sure this wasn't how things like this were supposed to work.

Ichigo preceded the other two up the stairs to the rooftop, the bento Yuzu packed in one hand. Eyeing Ishida and Chad, he decided he was considerably put out by their complete (well, for _them_) normalcy.

This was _so_ not normal.

Upon reaching the roof, Ishida, as per usual, sat down with that prissy posture of his, unpacking his lunch and setting up appropriately before starting.

Chad situated himself in-between both smaller boys and unwrapped his curry bread before opening his water bottle.

"Itaidekimasu…"

"…Itaidekimasu…"

Ichigo stared at his lunch for a bit.

Turned and watched Chad and Ishida.

"Sado…you shouldn't eat curry bread every day. It's bad for you."

"…I like it."

Ishida clucked, sounding eerily like a disapproving wife or something. "I'll make you lunch tomorrow."

"That'd be nice."

They shared a brief smile.

"Kurosaki-kun?"

"Uh… huh?"

"Do you want me to make you lunch tomorrow too?"

The shinigami blinked absently, staring as Chad took a drink of his water before offering the bottle to Ishida. "Uh… yeah, that'd be nice, I guess. I'll uh, tell Yuzu not to pack me anything… thanks…"

"Do you like pickled radish?" the Quincy asked, accepting the water from Chad without a word.

"Uh… yeah, it's okay." Ichigo watched the other boy take a drink before wiping his mouth with one of those hand-crocheted handkerchiefs of his and passing the bottle back to Chad.

Their hands brushed, and Ichigo flushed uncomfortably when they very obviously lingered.

The other two didn't even seem to notice.

Like it was the most normal thing in the world to do next, Chad offered the bottle to Ichigo.

Ishida looked on expectantly. As if he weren't bothered at all with Chad's…love of sharing… or anything.

Ichigo stared at the proffered beverage.

The other two watched him.

He got the sneaking suspicion that they were laughing at him.

He was beginning to get a little bit pissed off.

He glared.

Chad's hand didn't waver.

They stared at each other a while longer.

And then, "Okay, that's it, goddammit! I can't take this any more!" Ichigo raked both hands through his hair. "What the hell is _going on_!" he demanded, an accusatory expression on his face as he looked from one suspect to the next. "What's _wrong_ with you two!"

Chad smiled and lowered the bottle, shifting slightly so that he leaned into Ichigo's shoulder. "You could have just said you didn't want the water."

"C-chad?" The shorter boy blinked at him, flushed slightly around the ears. "Uh…what're you, I mean not that I…but…aren't you… Ishida…"

The Quincy's glasses gleamed and he pushed them up on his face, entertained by how quickly Ichigo lost his bluster. "Kurosaki-kun…"

Ichigo shifted away from Chad immediately. "I didn't do anything!"

Ishida couldn't hide his amusement. Having been through the same turmoil (though thankfully not for as long as Kurosaki), he could appreciate the depth of the shinigami's awkward confusion. "I'm not accusing you of anything, Ichigo. Especially if you haven't done anything yet."

Ichigo blinked again. Twice. "Huh? Yet?"

The Quincy sighed and shook his head. "Predictable."

Momentarily forgetting his confusion, the shinigami bristled. "What the hell's that supposed to mean, asshole!"

Unperturbed, Ishida rolled his eyes and leaned across Chad, pecking the orange-haired boy smugly on the cheek. "Thank you, Kurosaki-kun. Even if I was slow about it, the fact that you'll always be slower comforts me," he whispered, smirking up at Ichigo with that infuriating, half-mocking little expression of his that pissed the shinigami off so damn much.

"Asshole." Ichigo frowned, crossing his arms and trying his damned best to be irritable despite the telling blush spread across the bridge of his nose. "I still don't get what the hell is going on, goddammit."

Chad chuckled, a low rumbling sound from beside his friend, and leaned into him a little more. "You'll get it eventually, I think." He shared a look with Ishida.

"Aa," the archer agreed. "Eventually. Now eat your lunch. How do you feel about omelets tomorrow?"

"…assholes."

**END**


End file.
